Fierce Hearts: Women of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Oh my gosh, everyone! It’s yet another fabulous giveaway! My elderly iPad is literally full to bursting and I can’t download any more books to it without deleting the ones that are already there, but I still went and downloaded, like, a dozen or more of these books! When am I ever going to find the time to read them????

This particular giveaway is especially dear to my heart, focusing as it does on women in fantasy and sci-fi. As a hardcore, longtime feminist (why yes, my favorite F word IS feminism) I can’t help but note a certain…unfriendliness to women in the specfic world. One can argue that things are changing (true), and that making events women-only can backfire (also sometimes true), but since sexism and misogyny are still our native language, and including men somehow so often seems to end up with everything being about them, women-only events are still the best way to ensure that women get to speak at all. Just like how in my Russian classes we have to have rules about how much Russian we have to speak, you know, instead of yacking on in English all the time. Because obviously everyone speaks English and it’s so much easier and more natural than speaking any other language…what’s that, you say? English is NOT the only language in the world? If you practice other languages, even if it’s difficult and awkward at first, you will get better at them? Could that be true in other things as well? Question, questions!

Anyway, theoretical justifications aside, this looks like a great opportunity to pick up a diverse and exciting bunch of fantasy and sci-fi stories, all of which are pretty much guaranteed to pass the Bechdel test. Come check it out here.